Mabel Pines
All info provided by the Gravity Falls Wiki Mabel Pines is the slightly older twin sister of Dipper Pines by 5 mintues. She is energetic and optimistic, Mabel makes the best of every situation with a big goofy smile, while at the same time annoying her brother Dipper. Energetic, bouncy, and optimistic, Mabel makes the best of every situation with a big goofy smile, whilst annoying her brother. She really likes animals, mostly kittens, and wears a different sweater in every episode. She is best friends with Candy Chiu and Grenda. She is the deuteragonist of the show. History Early life Since age three, Mabel has celebrated Halloween with her brother, especially loving trick-or-treating. They both have a trick or treating scrap book where they put their memories of halloween costumes Present Life ".]] Sometime during the month of June (most likely June 1st, since "Tourist Trapped" took place on June 3), Mabel and her twin brother, Dipper Pines, were sent from Piedmont, California to the small town of Gravity Falls, Oregon to visit their great uncle Stan. Mabel believes that it is her chance to have an epic summer romance. She shows her boy-crazy obsession when she agrees to date a very mysterious creature, who is disguising himself as a teenage boy. But little does she know that he is actually a group of gnomes (leaded by Jeff) posing as a teenage boy. Jeff and the gnomes try to kidnap her because she won't be their queen, but Dipper rescues Mabel and brings her back to the Shack on a golf cart. Mabel then defeats Jeff and the gnomes using a leaf blower. Stan allows them to take anything from the Mystery Shack for free, and Mabel decides on a grappling hook. Adventures Though it is not specified when this happened, Mabel and Dipper helped Stan make counterfeit money. From the context, it's implied that they got arrested and spent some time in a cold jail cell. On a second attempt to create family bonds, Mabel gets in Stan's car blindfolded and Grunkle Stan drives them to a place where she is supposed to go fishing with him and Dipper as a family bonding day. When she hears that there is a monster in the lake named the Gobblewonker, she and Dipper want to go find it and get the proof after hearing about a contest if they find proof of a mythical creature. Mabel wants to discover it so she can buy a giant hamster ball to roll around in. They ditch Grunkle Stan and go with Soos to find the monster. In the end, the Gobblewonker turns out to just be an old man looking for attention. Feeling bad, Mabel and Dipper soon go back to Grunkle Stan to have their family bonding day. Mabel goes fishing with Grunkle Stan and Dipper as a family bonding day. When she hears that there is a monster in the lake named the Gobblewonker, she and Dipper want to go find it and get the proof. Mabel wants to discover it so she can buy a giant hamster ball to roll around in. They ditch Grunkle Stan and go with Soos to find the monster. In the end, the Gobblewonker turns out to just be an old man looking for attention. Feeling bad, Mabel and Dipper soon go back to Grunkle Stan to have their family bonding day. When Mabel and Dipper discover Grunkle Stan's old wax figure museum, Mabel creates her own wax statue of Grunkle Stan, to make up for a melted Abe Lincoln wax figure. When the opening ceremony turns sour and Wax Stan is found "decapitated" in the middle of the night, Mabel and Dipper search for the murderer. Failing to do so, they attend Wax Stan's funeral, attended by Soos and the other wax figures, only to realize the murderer wasn't a human at all. They fight off all the murderous Wax figures using decorative candles. Mabel throws their remains in the fire while Dipper deals with Wax Sherlock Holmes. Mabel later learns of an alleged psychic in town, named 'Lil Gideon, and goes to one of his shows alongside Dipper and Soos. The following day, she is greeted by Gideon and the two spend time together, ultimately leading to the boy asking her on a date, which she reluctantly agrees to do. After the first outing, however, Gideon incessantly invites her on more dates, and Mabel, driven by peer pressure and not knowing how to reject his offers, complies. Eventually, Dipper volunteers to end the relationship with Gideon for her, causing his sister great joy. When he carries out his promise, Gideon is enraged to the point of attempting to murder him, though he is saved when Mabel intervenes, breaks up with Gideon herself and destroys Gideon's amulet. Back at the Mystery Shack, the Pines talk about their days with their new enemy and mock him, while Gideon plots his revenge on them. When Mabel goes to the Dusk 2 Dawn with her brother Dipper, Wendy and friends, she stumbles upon a banned candy called Smile Dip. She eats about half of the shelf, or "bleventeen" as she puts it then, and begins to hallucinate, for example, a fantasy of riding on a flying dolphin with fists saying, "The future is in the past. "Onward, Aoshima!" Soon the store is taken over by ghosts and Ma and Pa possesses Mabel to communicate with the teenagers. Afterward, Mabel becomes sick to her stomach and calls the Smile Dip evil. Mabel immediately notices that Grunkle Stan has a "thing" for Lazy Susan the waitress at Greasy's Diner, so Mabel works some of her awesome "Mabel magic" and decides that she should be the one to help Grunkle Stan become more attractive and appealing to Lazy Susan. After having Soos pretend to be Lazy Susan, and Grunkle Stan spitting on the ground asking if "she" has any money, she decides to try a different approach to it, by "bringing that inner beauty to the outside". The end product looks worse than the original, and Mabel finally gives up, until Wendy says that Stan is unfixable, just like the spinny pie thingy in the diner. Mabel has a sudden brainstorm. She marches Grunkle Stan down to the diner to see Lazy Susan. She ends up giving him her number, and Mabel is overjoyed. When the Mystery Shack hosts a party, Mabel begs Grunkle Stan to let her mingle with other kids. He eventually says yes and gives her work spot to Dipper. She than meets Grenda and Candy Chiu, who soon become her friends. They tell her about Pacifica Northwest the most popular girl in Gravity falls. They soon become enemies and compete in a competition to see who could "party-hardy" the most, engaging in activities like singing and dancing. Though Mabel initially receives the audiences boat, Pacifica intimidates the party-goers to cheer for her and bribes Old Man McGucket. Unlike the other guests, who go off to Pacifica's afterparty, Candy and Grenda stay at the Shack and have a sleepover with their new friend. Later on Pioneer Day, she runs into Pacifica again. Pacifica says Mabel is too silly and not serious. This makes Mabel angry and embarrassed, so she goes with Dipper to find the true founder of Gravity falls, knowing that conspiracies are serious. After going though many "hard" puzzles, Mabel cracks them all using her silliness, like folding the secret map into a hat, looking at a painting upside down, and making a statue pick her nose. After finding the real founder, Quentin Trembley, they also find out that he was once the president. To their surprise the Sheriff and Deputy find them and send them, along with Trembley's body, to Washington D.C. On the way there, they free Trembley and find out that he survived by encasing himself in peanut brittle. They free themselves and eventually return back to Gravity Falls. Mabel no longer wants to prove Pacifica wrong, but this does not stop Dipper and he tells Pacifica that her ancestor is a fraud. When the Mystery Fair comes around, Mabel wins a pig at the fair, who she names Waddles. Later on, she and Dipper find a mysterious man from the future with a time travel device. Mabel wants to go back in time to remember her greatest moment in life, adopting Waddles, which she does again and again once they have the device, while Dipper keeps on going back to stop Robbie from dating Wendy. Eventually Mabel helps Dipper succeed, but this leads to Mabel not winning Waddles. They get in a huge fight and end up going through time, to the 1800's, the Jurassic period, the future, the Mystery Shack about 20 years ago, as well as to parts of the previous episodes "Tourist Trapped," "The Legend of the Gobblewonker," and "Headhunters." They finally end up in the timeline where Mabel doesn't have Waddles. She gives up and becomes miserable. Dipper gives in and reverses the timeline so she can have Waddles. Mabel accuses Grunkle Stan of acting "cray-cray" until she find out he has a fear of heights, A determined Mabel tricks Stan into climbing the water tower in a attempt to help him get over his fear. After running around from Rumble, she is seen nervously looking down, now having her own fear of heights. One day, Mabel discovers she is taller than Dipper by 1 millimeter (0.039 inches), and believes she will become the "Alpha Twin". She starts teasing him about it, causing Dipper to create a Crystal flashlight that can grow and shrink things. Dipper uses it to make himself taller, and the twins fight over the light, causing it to fall in Gideon's hands. Gideon shrinks the twins and takes them to his house, but they escape and chase him back to the Shack by using a balloon. However, the twins start arguing about their height, and Gideon captures them again. Inside his pocket, Mabel tells Dipper the only reason she made fun of him was because he always rubbed his victories in her face. The two make up and escape. They immobilize Gideon by tickling him, and Stan kicks him out of the Shack. The twins regrow themselves, and Mabel is still a millimeter taller. On Summerween, Mabel and Dipper learn that Gravity Falls love Halloween so much, that they celebrate it again on June 22. They become so excited while at the Summerween Superstore. Then when they are at the Mystery Shack they are all psyched and apparently Soos never saw them more psyched before and that tell him that they were the "best at Halloween" back home and unforgettable. So before trick-or-treating she has her jelly costume on and is standing next to Candy and Grenda, and introduces Dipper hoping if he has his costume on but he doesn't and she become depressed. Then while Dipper rudely shuts the door on the Summerween Trickster, she then answers the door sweetly and sorry for her brother's rudeness, but the trickster is mad and tells them that they have to get him 500 pieces of candy before the last jack-o-melon goes out. So then they all go trick-or-treating and convinces to putting on his peanut butter costume so that together they are peanut butter and jelly together, alternately they get more candy with Dipper wearing his costume, but when Wendy drives by he hides the candy and his costume but when she leaves and Mabel, Candy, and Grenda come back it turns out behind the bush was a cliff and all their candy fell, though they all see everyone blowing out their jack-o-melons and they all try and save the last one. Though when they all sighed in relief the melon's light went out anyways.The Trickster comes and tries to get them but Soos comes and runs him over, they all think they are saved so they all get in the truck. Dipper tries talking to Mabel but she is mad and depressed and doesn't really answer him so while looking out the windows she sees the Trickster reforming and warns everyone, he jumps on the truck and the truck runs into the superstore, while the trickster falls off the top. Soon in the superstore while Mabel, Dipper, Candy, and Grenda are hiding Mabel reveals that she wanted Dipper to go trick-or-treating because she didn't want him and her growing out of it so fast. After that Dipper is forgiven and they hide in costumes, though when they were about to escape the superstore Soos makes the skeleton head laugh and gets eaten. So then Grenda, Candy, Mabel, and Dipper go and attack the Trickster with the weapons from the superstore from some costumes. Then they all learn his story and how he is the candy that no one likes, when they are about to be eaten, it turns out that Soos has been eating him from the inside out and thinks he is delicious. The Trickster has always wanted that said about him and starts to cry. Soon they all go back to the Mystery Shack, it turns out Mabel got hurt while running from the Trickster and Dipper goes and puts a bandage over it and they all eat candy, while watching a scary movie. At the very end, during the credits, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda takes pictures of Waddles in his suit costume and put little captions on them. When Mabel becomes fed up with the way her uncle runs the Shack, specifically mistreating his employees, the two make a bet: whoever makes more money (Stan on vacation vs. Mabel as the boss) in three days time is in charge for the remainder of the summer. Using techniques she learns from Succeeding In Management 1983, she encourages her employees to follow their dreams and accepts suggestions from them, much to the others' delight. However, the workers begin to take advantage of her, and things become extremely complicated when a beast (the Gremloblin) she had had Dipper capture escapes from his cage, terrorizes tourists, and damages merchandise and the building. After he is defeated, Mabel finally snaps, and she bosses around her workers like Stan, and makes a large profit in doing so. But, due to various expenses, she is left with a single dollar; nonetheless, she still beats Stan, whose total is nothing. Despite her win, she rejects the opportunity to remain in charge, and she forces Stan to perform the apology dance he agreed to do if he lost. As she, her family, and Soos are falling down a bottomless pit, she tries to come up with ways to entertain herself and the others. After the group settles on telling stories to pass the time, Dipper proceeds to tell "Voice Over", in which Mabel is seen teasing Dipper about his "squeaky puberty voice," dismissing his more masculine, voice over-esque tone, and being happy about him deciding upon his original sound. In Soos' story, she is a victim of a sentient pinball game's attempts to kill her, Dipper, and Soos for cheating, and she serves as a distraction as Soos goes to turn off the game and free them. In her own story, "Trooth Ache", she becomes so resentful of Stan's lying habit that she forces him to tell the truth with a set of magical teeth. Though she is excited about Stan's truthfulness at first, Mabel quickly comes to hate her uncle's unfiltered honesty, and even goes to the point of lying to prevent him from being arrested for various crimes to which he admits. After the group exits the pit via the same place they came out, Stan falls back, but Mabel and the others say that he will be fine and walk away. On the hottest day of the summer, Mabel meets a merman by the name of Mermando, who is trapped at the Gravity Falls Pool. She is immediately stricken by his good looks and mysterious allure and tries hard to get to know him. Upon finding out he's trapped, she devises a plan to free him. The first of which involved building prosthetic legs out of fish sticks, which she abandoned in favor of a less nonsensical idea of smuggling him in the Pool's water cooler and driving to the Lake Gravity Falls with the Mystery Cart. Dipper initially tries to stop her after following her in a high speed race to the lake, but helps her out when he finds out about Mermando. Mermando nearly suffocates without water, but Mabel convinces Dipper to give him "reverse CPR." After he is saved Mermando give Mabel her first kiss before saying goodbye. Later, forlorn, Mabel at the pool receives several messages in bottles from him. When the twins grow extremely regretful about sharing a room, they find another within the Shack. Since both want it, they decide to compete for the key to it, but unexpectedly swap bodies in the process and panic as a result. Mabel, being stuck in Dipper's body began a campaign to make Dipper look bad to Grunkle Stan. Most of this campaign consisted of having fun breaking stuff and proclaiming she was Dipper. Mabel missed out on a sleepover scheduled that very night with Candy and Grenda to Dipper with her body. As a result of age inappropriate werewolf romance novels, Grunkle Stan believes Dipper (though actually Mabel) to be "at that creepy age where you spy on girls" and decides to tell him about the birds and the bees. After being traumatized by this, Mabel loses the room to Dipper due to giving the impression that Dipper had decided to stand up to Stan. She continues to hide the key to the room from Dipper, however, and locks herself in the room. However, she is tricked into opening the door by Dipper. After this, she swaps bodies multiple times with multiple people, including Waddles, due mostly to conflict over the key to the room. After everybody is back in their own body and they talk it over, Mabel agrees to let Dipper have the room. The two eventually bond over attic mini golf after they decide they miss being in the same room, and share a room in the attic again. Mabel is incredibly excited to go see a concert with her friends Candy and Grenda for a boyband that they are all obsessed with, Sev'ral Timez. All of them are very eager to see the concert, but when they get there, they find out that it has been sold out! Mabel is still determined to meet the band, and sneaks into the backstage room with her friends to see them. They discover that the boyband is made up of clones, who are being held captive in a cage by their cruel producer. Mabel and her friends bust them out and take them to the shack, where they keep them inside because their producer is looking for them. Mabel and her friends teach/attempt to teach the band to behave like normal people, and during this process Mabel becomes extremely possesive of the band. When she and her friends learn of their producer's arrest, Mabel doesn't want to let the band go, and tells them to kick her friends out. Eventually, after the band plays a song they wrote for her, she comes to her senses and decides to be a good person and let the boys go. She and her friends make up, and send the boys off into the woods. When Mabel decides to get Waddles a present, she reluctantly leaves the pig with Grunkle Stan. When she returns, she learns that a Pterodactyl has made off with Waddles. She then leads the others in getting Waddles back. When Gideon sends Bill Cipher into Stan's mind to get the combination to the safe containing the deed to the Mystery Shack, Mabel, Dipper and Soos follow him. They are eventually able to repulse the demon, but on returning, they discover Gideon used dynamite to open the safe. With the deed in hand, Gideon forces them all out of the shack, and has his father demolish it with a wrecking ball. Forced to live at Soos' grandmother's house, the Pines watch a television report about Gideon, and his plans to rebuild the Mystery Shack as "Gideonland". They go to the unveiling in an attempt to unmask Gideon to the town, but no-one believes them. Soon after, Stan decides to send Mabel and Dipper back to their parents. Instead, they attempt to brak into the Shack, enlisting the help of the Gnomes to do so. However, Gideon turns the Gnomes against them and takes Dipper's book. As the twins are on the bus back home, they see Gideon's Gideon-bot coming after Stan. They try to stop Gideon, but he takes Mabel for his "queen". Dipper gets inside the robot and fights Gideon, causing the robot to drop over a cliff. Mabel saves herself and Dipper with her grappling hook. Gideon attempts to have the twins arrested, but Stan reveals that Gideon has been spying on everyone, causing Gideon to be the one arrested, and the deed to be returned to Stan. The Pines family then return to the Mystery Shack. Personality Mabel Pines is a buoyant, cheerful, bouncy, energetic, and full of spirit. An optimist who skips through life with a braces-filled smile and an assortment of extremely colorful knit sweaters. It is her outgoing personality and fearless curiosity that comes in handy when Dipper needs help solving a mystery, even if she isn't always aware of her silliness. Despite her cheerful attitude and her ability to be able to look on the bright side, she can occasionally get her feelings hurt, especially by her rival Pacifica Northwest. Mabel abhors lying and is a terrible liar herself, often blurting out whatever it is about which she is trying to lie. She lives in a world of preteen novels (mostly about vampires), and her fixation on finding her one true love occasionally lands her in sticky situations which ultimately require her brother's help. Still, despite all the weirdness in Gravity Falls, Mabel is always a "glass half full" kind of girl. She is rarely angry or upset, and generally keeps a positive outlook. She is somewhat naive at times. Mabel is aware of and cherishes her cuteness. Appearance Mabel is a short twelve year old girl, exactly one millimeter taller than her twin brother. Her cheeks are round with blush pink spots, her hair is brown, and her eyes are brown, like Dipper's, and she wears braces. Mabel's apparel varies for each episode, more so than any other character's, with different sweaters and occasionally various earrings and headbands. Creator Alex Hirsch stated in an interview that Mabel will have a different sweater every episode. Her signature outfit is a pink sweater with a rainbow shooting star going in the left direction on it and a purple skirt with black shoes and white socks. She primarily wears sweaters, but she does not wear one at the end of Tourist Trapped, during the murder scene of Headhunters and through most of Irrational Treasure. In the Boss Mabel promo she is wearing a blue suit with shoulder pads and glasses. For her swimsuit, it is a red 1-piece swimsuit with a red star in the middle. Relationships Dipper Pines Mabel is very close with her twin brother, and the two enjoy spending time together, whether it be simply goofing off or having adventures in their strange summer home. They care deeply about each other, even to the risking their lives for the sake of one another, although they frequently bicker with each other, as siblings do. They can also get on each others' nerves at times, more frequently Mabel on Dipper's, due to teasing him. Mabel cannot stand to see people bully Dipper, nor does Dipper like to see his sister upset, and he is somewhat protective over her. Grunkle Stan While Mabel is an incredibly cheerful optimist, Stan is something of a sneaky miser, so their personalities sometimes clash. Despite Mabel's disapproval of many of Stan's habits and Stan's irresponsibility and exploitation of Mabel, the they still love each other. Mabel often gets involved in her uncle's problems, offering him help whether he wants it or not. Additionally, Stan occasionally gets protective of Mabel and gets jealous when she declines to spend time with him. Soos ".]] Soos and Mabel are close friends, even having a secret handshake and nicknames for each other. Soos often serves as a sidekick for Mabel and Dipper on many of their adventures, and he frequently offers them guidance, though they do not always listen. Mabel and Soos share a mutual love of humor and optimism, which aids in their closeness and their tendencies to goof off together. Wendy Corduroy Mabel and Wendy enjoy hanging out and goofing off together. Mabel will sometimes seek advice from Wendy, although she is not very attentive, but Wendy is still known to be of service on occasion. Knowing of Dipper's crush on Wendy, Mabel sometimes gets entangled in her brother's attempts to get Wendy to return the feeling. Li'l Gideon Gideon seeks revenge on Mabel and her family (which he sees as the only thing separating him from Mabel), nonetheless retaining a crush on her. So, as he enacts his evil schemes, he forcefully attempts to get her to like him back, and he sends her love letters on the side. Unfortunately for him, Mabel is not interested whatsoever, finding him to be creepy and unlikable. She hates the fact that he tries to harm her family. On multiple occasions, Gideon tries to convince Mabel to be his queen. Waddles Mabel cares about her pet pig deeply, even calling him her "soul mate" and considering the moment she won him to be the best in her life. She frequently dresses him up and spends time with him, and Waddles seems to like Mabel's company just the same. When Pacifica won Waddles, she cried and wanted Dipper to go back in time to get Waddles back. Candy Chiu and Grenda With all of them being labeled "weird" by more popular individuals, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda are brought together in this. Despite doubts from others, they share typical interests for girls their age, such as boys, make-up, and romance. It is safe to say that they spend time together on a daily basis, engaging in various activities, most commonly sleepovers. Pacifica Northwest In her spoiled, stuck-up nature, Pacifica views Mabel as an outcast because of her extreme silliness and choice to hang out among the "weird" crowd. Pacifica frequently teases Mabel about her personality and practically everything she does, thus increasing tensions to the point of being archenemies. Mabel's feelings can be hurt by Pacifica's words and she will often stand right back up to the girl, adding to their animosity. Mr. and Mrs. Pines Mabel's relationship with her parents is obscure, especially due to showing little reaction in the few instances of direct interaction between the parties. However, it is known that Mabel enjoys her life in Gravity Falls. Mermando Mabel had a crush on Mermando since the first day she saw him and when he gave her bottles she went all bubbly inside. She tries to do everything she can so Mermando can be happy. Abilities Mabel claims to be an Arts and Crafts master, which is supported by the skills she's shown so far, including knitting, as she knits her own sweaters, scrap booking, having made a few scrap books about her and Dipper's time in Gravity Falls and of their past Halloween costumes, wax sculpting, as seen in Headhunters when she makes a realistic wax figure of Grunkle Stan in a short amount of time, and very good at folding paper, as seen in Irrational Treasure when she makes a hat out of an old piece of paper in a few seconds. Mabel is also skilled in animal calls. She never misses a "scrapbookortunity" which is the opportunity to scrapbook. Other appearances Disney Super Speedway .]] Mabel in an unlockable character in her video game debut who can be bought for 3500 coins. Mystery Shack Attack Mabel gives the player a tutorial on how to play, and then is seen when a fence is needed to be built. Trivia *Creator Alex Hirsch has said that Mabel is based on his twin sister, Ariel Hirsch. His sister often wore very silly, vibrant, goofy sweaters, so he made sure Mabel had a different sweater in every episode. Ariel also was a huge "fan-girl", explaining where at least a portion of Mabel's personality comes from. **Hirsch has also said that: **Hirsch also said on his Twitter account that Mabel is 5 minutes older than Dipper. Thus, it may explain why she is 1 millimeter taller than Dipper ("Little Dipper") *In "The Time Traveler's Pig", Mabel utters Goofy's catchphrase, "Hyuck! Hyuck! Hyuck!" *As it is shown in "The Inconveniencing", Mabel may have green eyes, because during her second hallucination, we see her green eye popping out after eating more Smile Dip. However, according to Alex Hirsch, Mabel and Dipper both have brown eyes. *Mabel has been to County Jail with Dipper and Grunkle Stan, due to making counterfeit money. *The name Mabel comes from the Latin word "amablils", meaning "lovable." *Mabel is associated with the "shooting star" symbol on Bill's page in ''2. *Her shirt is rarely shown throughout the series. *She is similar to Phineas Flynn in a several ways: **They are both optimistic and kind-hearted. **Both got angry when something is not going right at all (Mabel wanting Wendy and Soos to fix the Mystery Shack, and Phineas wanting Candace to get on the trike). **Both characters own pets that serve as the main animal in the series (Waddles for Mabel and Perry for Phineas). ***Also both worried about losing them (Waddles in one time paradox being taken by Pacifica Northwest from Mabel and Phineas worried about Perry being lost, even though Perry was only reassigned to a new agent early in the morning, instead of later in the morning). **Both want to use summer in a large way (Phineas by making inventions and Mabel by getting a romance) **Both Mabel and Phineas are the first character to have an episode named after them in their series. *Mabel shows a sophisticated attitude when it comes to art. *Dipper and Mabel's middle names are their parents' first names. *Mabel is revaeled to like a boy band called "Sev'ral Timez" in the episode "Boyz Crazy". Gallery External links * Gravity Falls Wiki: Mabel Pines Category:Gravity Falls characters Category:Females Category:Kids Category:Comedy Characters Category:Siblings Category:Humans Category:Artists Category:Caucasian-American characters Category:Crazy Characters Category:Daughters Category:Pre-teens Category:Lovers Category:Iconic characters Category:Singing Characters Category:Heroines Category:Characters who break the Fourth Wall Category:Masters Of Disguise Category:Humans that were turned into animals Category:Pigs Category:Animated characters Category:Characters Category:Disney characters Category:Living characters